Religion’s Role in the History of Ideas

February 20, 2015 8:48 PM

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It happens every year. In teaching my humanities class, I ask what a philosopher had in mind in writing about the immortality of the soul or salvation, and suddenly my normally loquacious undergraduates start staring down intently at their notes. If I ask them a factual theological question about the Protestant Reformation, they are ready with an answer: predestination, faith not works, etc.

But if I go on to ask them how one knows in one’s heart that one is saved, they turn back to their notes. They look anywhere but at me, for fear that I might ask them about feeling the love of God or about having a heart filled with faith. In this intellectual history class, we talk about sexuality ...

Faith is the opposite of validation, the latter the basis of the scientific method. Faith demands unquestioning obedience, validation unrelenting questioning.Religions were invented in an arid region, where productive effort, without the oil that sat below them, produced rare reward. In the societies that arose there, survival was based upon the ability to steal from the few who could survive in those harsh conditions. These societies needed suckers willing to die for their leaders, so they could form packs to attack and rob their neighbours.The world no longer needs to con young people out of their minds so that they are willing to “make the ultimately sacrifice” for the collective.It was never for the collective anyway—just for those who promoted the moral scam.

At the time the Bible was created, most people viewed the earth as the center of the universe and that the sun, stars, planets, and moon revolved around its flat surface. Christianity is based on this world view, placing an emphasis on humans as the ultimate reason that the universe was created in the first place. Not only is Christianity earth-centered, but it was also limited to a few hundred square miles in its beginning and did not reach all areas of the earth until about 1500 years later. Further, it is limited in its overall time scope to something less than 10,000 years.What we have since learned about the age and size of the universe has spectacularly dwarfed the Christian world view. Instead of 10,000 years old, the universe is 13,700,000,000 years old. Instead of the earth and a few objects orbiting around it, we have the earth, 4,500,000,000 years old, orbiting the sun, which is just one of over 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which itself is only one of at least 200,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe.The idea that all of this was created so that God could create and test human beings is absurd. If that was so, then:– Why did God wait 9,200,000,000 years after creating the universe to construct the earth?– Why did God wait 4,500,000,000 years after creating the earth to create human beings?– Why did God wait 100,000 years after creating modern human beings before making any contact with them?– Why did God allow 3,500 years to pass after the initial contact with humans was made before his word had spread world-wide?These thoughts are best summed up by a quote from Richard Feynman:“It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil – which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.”

The way we act is the surface, what is observable, of what we are ("By their fruits, you shall know them". What we are can be described in terms of politics or nationality or age or race, but the substance of these categories is simply a reflection of our relationship to God. Our relationship to God is the basis for everything else. A secular kind of person has no business evaluating or even observing anyone's relationship to God with any competence. I feel the same way as the people who tease the Pope's giving advice to married people.

The author makes a great point. Over the years, religion has had an impact on how humans act and interact with each other. However it seems that to try and understand the Torah or New Testament or Koran or Upanishads or Vedas or even Buddhist texts will take years of study for anything other than a superficial view. Yet even that superficial view is better than ignorance, especially if you try to make conclusions out of ignorance.

It's a shame Wesleyan dropped its Methodist connection in the 30's, like Harvard and so many others (e.g. so many of the 'Catholic' universities now) have done over the years. The loss is incalculable.

“…how <does> one know in one’s heart that one is saved”?“…feeling the love of God” or “…having a heart filled with faith”?The religious experience you describe is an emotional misrepresentation of the feeling of a person who has acceded responsibility for their own judgement—who has unwittingly accepted a subordinate role to a religious organization ruled by shysters. No longer does a converted have to think for themselves. Indeed, that capacity is an enemy of religions, and those who practice it socially ostracized, slandered, threatened, tortured, robbed, exiled or burnt at the stake.It should be unlawful to teach to anyone but adults a religion, when they are more able to see through the scam, having experience in life to form their own judgement.And any religion that threatens torture after death—also called extortion—or promises gifts after death—bribery without legal recourse—should be legally censured outright.

Christians claim that God came to the Earth and lived among us for 33 years. After this extraordinarily dramatic event, after we were graced by the presence of an infinitely intelligent being who created the universe, who knew everything about the universe, including the theory of gravity, the germ theory of disease, the big bang, quantum physics, and whatever else……what changed? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.Life after Jesus was just like it was before, and even worse for the Jews who suffered heavy casualties from the Romans, the very enemy that Jesus was determined to conquer. After Jesus, many more messiahs dotted the landscape, preached deliverance from their oppressors, and were ultimately crucified just like he was. There was no advancement of science, no miracle cures, no prayers answered, no advancement in health care or nutrition, no enhanced understanding of the earth or the cosmos, and no improvement in the morals and ethics of the times. It was just life as it had always been. Just a continuation of the backward, unenlightened Bronze Age civilization. Yes, God came and nothing changed.And the people he visited were outshone by the people he didn’t visit- the Chinese and the Egyptians. How could God come among us and leave us with so little? The obvious answer is… he didn’t.

Terry you do not inspire, you only tear down.I just spent a week in Rome and saw how Christianity very gradually overcame the Roman Empire and supported the development of a new civilization in Europe born out of the dark ages, and supported the Rennaissance in literature, Art and Science. Woman and slaves flocked to Christianity because it gave them equal rights before God and gradually before men. Workers rights and a 6 day work weeks were driven by Christian ethics. Almost all medical advances were made by Christians that have tamed the worst diseases. Egypt and China are now behind the Christian West because they repress the individual freedoms that Christianity supports. Having a personal relationship with a loving God helps people achieve their full potential. They have unlimited energy to serve and this achieves greatness for the glory of God.

A long time ago I heard Dr. Billy Graham speak and he posed the question "if you were told there is one chance ten thousand the plane your taking tomorrow will not make its destination safely, would you take it?" "So I ask you, if there is one chance in ten thousand or a million that there is a heaven and a hell are you prepared to risk eternal damnation?"That has stayed with me for over fifty years. It's very personal. How bigger a gambler am I?Even if it's the wrong religion I think I could ask the question how was I to know and get passing grade from the only judge that ultimately matters..

The problem with too many students (and an few teachers) in liberal studies is that they grew up thinking that learning names and dates tells them all they need to know about history, culture, etc. What they didn't learn is that human culture is and always has been a result of constant interactions with beliefs, knowledge, environment, etc. and is by no means static. What they learn (and hopefully are able to understand) today can and will effect how they understand the world and each other. However, one of the major errors in the development of understanding is the knowledge that the values that we hold today are not neccessarily the same as those held by peoples in other times and places. The understanding that we should not project our values to other times and places is a major step in gaining understanding of the world we live in.

Perhaps a problem of unbelief in the twenty first century. Maybe these undergrads, who are not so far away from having accepted the miracle of a small jar of oil lasting eight days or that of Santa Claus, have lost - or have been taught the language of the mind - of rational belief and thinking. Now when asked to transition to an age of miracles and a different thought process they become mute.

Talking religion in history should be foundational because cultures are founded on religion. Ideas of origins, purpose, mission and eventual death are unsettling to those who lack direction. They would rather eat international pastry, call themselves wise and believe they are citizens of the world.

Discussing religion, theology and history the way Mr. Roth prescribes is great. But when questions of personal identity and beliefs come up, the discussions tend have opposite effects. With the increased awareness of self, both as an individual and collective entity, I still doubt Rationality can become a mass approach!

All of you who would denigrate and destroy established religions had better reread "Lord of the Flies" and then consider whether a worldly paradise of reason and humanism is likely to follow your destructive work?

""What we have since learned about the age and size of the universe has spectacularly dwarfed the Christian world view. Instead of 10,000 years old, the universe is 13,700,000,000 years old. Instead of the earth and a few objects orbiting around it, we have the earth, 4,500,000,000 years old, orbiting the sun, which is just one of over 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which itself is only one of at least 200,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe."C'mon Terry. If you want to gain credibility pasting all this get rid of rid of all the zero's - e.g. 200,000,000,000 = 2*10^11. You'll gain at least some plausibility that way.

a true, factual religion represented by a supernatural god would not suffer the number of problems that we see in Christianity. It would be precise, flawless, authentic, transcendent, unmatched, prescient, prophetic, revelatory, internally consistent, and scientifically accurate. In Christianity, we see none of these elements.If Christianity is the true religion of an omnipresent deity, there would be no way possible to compile a list of problems anywhere near the size of what is presented here. The conclusion of an objective analysis is that, beyond a reasonable doubt, Christianity is untrue.One major lesson to be learned about determining what to believe and what not to believe can be summed up in a few words- the things that are real can be observed, measured, or demonstrated. To that end, we can say confidently that ghosts, goblins, poltergeists, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, alien abductions, wizards, witches, angels, demons, fairies, and unicorns are not real. And one more we can add to this list: The God of Christianity.